US computer export reforms to benefit India

AGENCIES

New York, July 3: The United States President Bill Clinton has announced reforms in the administration's export controls on high-performance computers (HPC) and semi-conductors, a change that will benefit civilian and military end-users in India and Pakistan. Even though India is listed among countries that present the "greatest risk" in terms of national security because of its nuclear programme and the dual-use technology that these computers present, the President and his advisers believe barring such technology would only give an advantage to competitors from other countries.The administration raised the licensing threshold of high-performance computers and semi-conductors to so-called "Tier two" and "Tier three" countries. For "Tier 3" countries, among which India and Pakistan are listed, and "which present the greatest risk from a national security viewpoint, the administration will continue its policy of maintaining a lower threshold for military end-users than civilian end-users," the President saidin a statement. But the thresholds will be raised. Clinton said he was raising the thresholds because the existing controls "would hurt US exports without benefiting our national security and the new policies will strengthen America's high-tech competitiveness, while maintaining controls that are needed to maintain national security." These reforms are needed because of the extraordinarily rapid rate of technological change in the computer industry, US President Clinton pointed out.

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